The Guardian Green Travel Guide

Liane Katz has edited a ground breaking Green Travel Guide for The Guardian which offers travellers and holidaymakers a guide to green holidays, as Tom Hall comments �everything you need to travel with your eyes open.�

Alastair Sawday, in his foreword,  reminds readers of Leo Hickman�s injunction to wean ourselves off long haul and exploitative travel, given that �madness and denial� are everywhere, what he asks can we do. Liane Katz, and the contributors she has brought together, remind us that it is possible for �the joys of travel to coexist with awareness�.

We can make a difference by the way we travel. As consumers we have choices and Katz�s guide provides the awareness to consumers and with it the opportunity to make better choices. This is the best guide book to responsible travel to date, it draws on some of the best writing in The Guardian and elsewhere and brings together a real wealth of advice for the consumer about how to have a great holiday without damaging our world .

The guide is in three sections � there is an awareness raising first section: What is Green Travel? The second section discusses how to travel and that has a short discussion about fairtrade and ethical travel contributed by Jill Insley. The third section draws heavily on Richard Hammond's pieces written for www.greentraveller.co.uk , a directory of accommodation and experiences and some of the most responsible operators � although the criteria are not clear and there are some odd omissions.

ICRT alumni Justin Francis, Catherine Mack and Veronica Tonge are amongst the contributors. The section on flying and carbon offsetting presents the debate well and will contribute to raising awareness� I am there arguing that it is responsible to fly, although as with drinking it depends how, and how much of it, you do.

It is odd that there is no directory offering those interested in the issues guidance on where to find further information � but this is a traditional travel book albeit with a new message, and perhaps Liane was right to avoid the book becoming to earnest, stodgy and worse, for a guide book,  academic.

The book conveys the message that responsible holidays can be luxurious and fun, great experiences which don�t cost the earth. We need more of this kind of writing about responsible travel � although it is disappointing that The Guardian still feels it can�t lead with that language, it persists with the focus on green. The section on What is Green Travel has a long section on What is responsible tourism? 32 pages, the bulk of the section � the rest deals with flying and carbon offsetting. It appears that green means responsible�

peopleandplaces, the volunteering company I established with Kate and Sallie to demonstrate that volunteering holidays can be organised and sold ethically, is identified as a trail blazer in volunteering overseas � and the questions Liane recommends should be asked about volunteering overseas look very familiar! (p.188 and 196).

Take a look, recommend it to your friends, for the non-expert this is a great introduction to why and how people should and can travel more responsibly � and still have a great holiday. If the RT movement cannot offer that, it will fail.  

Katz L (2009) The Guardian Green Travel Guide Guardian Books �13.99

I have been at a conference on Progress in Tourism Studies in Leuven at the Catholic University organised to celebrate the work of Professor Myriam Jansen-Verbeke, she has had a distinguished career producing excellent work on cultural tourism and particularly on cultural landscapes.

Jafar Jafari was there reflecting on �hindsight and foresight in the field of tourism� � Myriam was for many years on the editorial board of Annals of Tourism Research. Jafari�s presentation celebrated the achievement in tourism studies and drew parallels between the growth of the industry and of academia�s interest in it. Jafari pointed out that tourism had to overcome �iron walls� and to mount barricades to establish the subject.

Jafar made a trenchant critique of practice in tourism studies and the way in which tourism has confined itself to a silo, my word not his. He used the word inbreeding, pointing out that tourism academics have taught tourism too much �in itself�, that we have hired our own, published in our own journals and spoken at our own conferences. Jafar�s argument that tourism studies has taken place in a silo and that there has been too much self-reverencing is undeniable.

The argument is all the more powerful when it is made by the founding editor and Editor in Chief of Annals of Tourism Research, the subject�s leading journal, for 35 years. It is rare to hear such reflective self criticism, one can only admire Jafar�s honesty.

For an international centre it is essential that we engage with the international academic community, to hear what other academics have to say to international audiences and to ensure that we stay abreast of the work of our peers. The journals provide the finished output but few journals offer an opportunity for genuine dialogue and none can offer the opportunity to discuss and debate face-to-face. It is through attendance at international conferences that it is possible to keep abreast of the latest thinking and to explore the opportunity to develop new relationships.

In Leuven I was able to meet with and talk with some of the world�s leading scholars in Tourism Studies, scholars I had not previously met: Geoffrey Wall from Canada, Jafar Jafari formerly editor of Annals of Tourism Research, Greg Ashworth from Groningen, Kit Jenkins form Glasgow and to renew acquaintance with Raoul Bianchi, now at East London and Ren�e van der Duim at Wageningen. Ko Koens one of our PhD students was there too, networking and talking with the participants about his research and looking for opportunities in the future. Lieve Coppin was there, I had last seen her in Peru ten years ago � an opportunity to talk about progress there and SNV�s work in South America. A great deal of knowledge gained in two days.

In the recession the traditional package holiday is finding renewed favour as holidaymakers hedge against the risks of their holiday becoming unaffordable. The recession has reduced the willingness of holidaymakers to use the budget airlines and book their own accommodation � it is safer to book a package. ABTA has reported that bookings are moving away from the Eurozone, bookings to Egypt are reported to be up 38% and to Turkey 32%.

Both TUI and Thomas Cook cut capacity earlier this year in order to maintain prices, some reports say by as much as 25%, people are trading down from villas to inclusive packages. The Maldives is reported to be targeting the mass market, encouraging charter flights and building cheaper hotels and resorts, looking for an extra 100,000 UK holidaymakers in market where arrivals in the Maldives have fallen sharply resulting in redundancies.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/5135618/Maldives-targets-mass-market-with-affordable-hotels.html

Charles Starmer-Smith writing in today�s Telegraph Travel reminds readers that in July 2005 the Telegraph had predicted that the rise of independent travel would spell the end of the package holiday. They wrote in the summer of 2005 �The package holiday is a dying formula which has manifestly failed to keep up with the public�s expectations..�

Between 2003 and 2007 independently booked holidays out of the UK increased from 21.7m to 27.2m, while package holidays were flat at about 19m a year. Mintel have reported that in the year to June 2009 23 million UK holidaymakers took packages.  

The recession has changed that
�    Thomas Cook�s all-inclusive summer breaks are reported up 50% in the last month on last year�s figures.
�    TUI are reporting that all-inclusive holiday bookings have risen 10% in recent weeks

An all-inclusive holiday package ensures that your money is protected and fixes the cost of the holiday. The decline in the value of the pound against the euro had discouraged people from making their own arrangements or going self-catering and the boom in low cost flights

For more see Return of the Package Holiday

The DG of the Gambian Tourism Authority was clearly impressed by the presentations made by our ICRT Masters students who had worked in groups with Gambian counterparts on four particularly difficult issues. The DG thinks that he will be able to implement four of the proposals on All Inclusives, governance and the Responsible Tourism Partnership and a series of events at the beginning of the season designed to ensure that the overseas operators and representatives are introduced to The Gambia and its tourism potential in the best possible way. This course, like its predecessors, has contributed to making The Gambia a better place to live in and a better place to visit.

Our students gain from sharing ideas and learning with the Gambians who come from the formal and informal sectors of the industry, they come to a shared understanding of the issues and work to develop solutions which are practical and which advance the Responsible Tourism agenda. It provides a unique learning experience for our students and at the same time contributes to the development of tourism in The Gambia.

Key themes of the destinations module � multi-stakeholder partnerships, place identity, the tragedy of the commons are very apparent in The Gambia and conflicts are arising again between the informal sector and the hoteliers and operators. TUI is cutting two flights a week for the next winter season and The Gambia�s new competitor Cape Verde is growing fast.   The recession is hitting The Gambia hard as holidaymakers reduce their expenditure in resort and tour operators squeeze rates.

Our next joint course in December 2009 will address the recession directly working at the issues which arise when an originating market recession impacts in a dependent destination � hotels and ground handlers are being squeezed, numbers are declining. The informal and formal sectors need to respond and to find new opportunities for product development. More sensitively informal sector operators have to look at their pricing structures to see how they can maximise their earnings in more difficult market conditions: a new challenge for The Gambia and our Masters students. Some of the informal sector producers by failing to review their prices are becoming a barrier for other informal sector producers � this will surely lead to conflict within the informal sector and between the formal and informal sectors.

Increasing numbers of people want to put something back into the place or the community where they have travelled on holiday or business. At http://travaid.org/  you can find some excellent local initiatives to donate to � these have been screened by us and our advisers and we believe that they will make a significant difference to the people an places you have visited. Take a look at the projects and click through to make a donation through the Big Give.

You can help by
1.    publicising this new opportunity for assured destination giving � please spread the word.
2.    we are keen to develop more partnerships with tour operators and hoteliers in originating markets and destinations please encourage potential partners to contact us �
3.    if you would like to nominate a project or join our advisory panel please follow the links on www.travaid.org or email  � we would be delighted to hear from you

Travaid provides a mechanism for assured giving to worthwhile local initiatives � it is the safest and most efficient way of giving back and it adds gift aid to your donation if you are a UK taxpayer.

Use it.